Where are my helmets?

   I'm fining I love the way elements of the Gothic are present in everything we read and that those elements are evolving slowly. To that end there are two things I find distinctly striking about Romance of the Forest. The first is the obviously Gothic supernatural crux, or rather, in this case, the lack thereof. There is nothing nearly as obtrusive and distinct as Castle of Otranto and it's recurring helmet. Instead Romance has the ever present issue of the sublime that we discussed with these beautifully eerie and poetic descriptions of the world and people. The world itself, especially in reference to the abbey, is filthy creepy and strange, yet I am entranced and pleased by what I hear about it's state of decay. For me that's what the poetry really accentuates, the depth and fluidity of the way we see the world and events of Romance.
   Secondly, the lack of a prophecy caught my attention, and by association, the division of the book in terms of perspective. Instead there is a form of prophecy that occurs every time some one tries to warn Adeline, especially once the book moves to be dominated by her perspective. This of course is in close relation to my first point, being as there are no "divine" prophecies handed down across generations, yet there is something odd to me about the way everyone seeks to warn Adeline in specific, and almost exclusively after we begin seeing things from her perspective.

Indirect Discourse

I believe the use of Indirect Discourse really adds to a Gothic novel. Maybe i failed to see the point of our little experiment on Monday, however, I felt that our group had a hard time coming up with dialogue for a character that was talking using Indirect Discourse. This made me think that perhaps the use of this narrative mode was to create a sense of mystery  if the character just flat our said everything they were going to see, and we as the reader saw that, I feel we would lose a lot of the darkness that come into a Gothic novel. In a sense I think the Indirect Discourse is a major factor into what make this Gothic without it would lose an entire sense of darkness that we miss. So I am going to put forth the theory that the ambiguity that comes along with this novel is what provides, at least for me, a sense of enigmatic foreboding that the novel needs to be complete. 

Also I made this meme which describes my feelings of this book.

Feminist Problems

Radcliffe's Romance of the Forest isn't necessarily my cup of tea. But that's probably due to the lack of a "strong" heroine. Adeline is described as small in comparison to her surroundings, taken in by the La Motte's, and doesn't appear to have a whole lot to say. I suppose my dislike of her is slightly my fault, because as a reader I know that I tend to sympathize with characters who have a strong backbone and gumption. I just feel that Adeline really doesn't have a whole lot to offer and is simply a vehicle to get things to happen.

Which, in  a sense I'm glad that there is a female protagonist here. We're experiencing the actions in the story through a feminine scope, as opposed to the predominant male scope. That shows some sort of progress, not Jane Austen's kind of progress; but, I'll take it. (Which is the statement of any woman, ever. Even with the advent of one Elizabeth Bennet.)

Romance of the Forest

Throughout Romance of the Forest, it is apparent that every character is wearing a "mask" of sorts. Adeline at first appears weak, but it becomes clear, especially through her soliloquy about her family, that she is one of the strongest characters within the story. Madame de la Motte appears hospitable and warm at first, but quickly turns cold and jealous without reason. However, I think the most interesting “mask” is that of Pierre de la Motte. When we are first introduced to him, he seems to be somewhat protective of his family. He alone walks to the house where he finds Adeline and becomes a "hero" of sorts to her. However, as the story continues, we realize that he is hiding from the French government. In a way, he becomes somewhat of an anti-hero. We are inclined to sympathize with him, despite the fact that he has obviously done something to get himself into the situation.  His one concern is his own safety, and even jeopardizes the safety of others until he knows that he will be safe, such as when the Marquis enters the story.  La Motte seems to hide until he feels that it is okay to re-enter the room, then again puts on a “mask” of hospitality, acting as though he were the owner of the abbey. La Motte is either fleeing and frightened, or dominating and confident. He covers his fears by overcompensating for his position within his family.

Hero? Or just selfish?

In the beginning, when we are first introduced to La Motte he is seen as a scoundrel, as he is running away from Paris leaving behind debts and a warrant for his arrest. He journeys with his faithful wife who he seems rather impatient with, as she is rather reluctant to leave behind the comforts of their Parisian life. At first, I thought La Motte was going to be a detestable character, but then we reached the part where he saves Adeline. Adeline acts as if La Motte was her hero, but was he really all that heroic? My impression of him simply changed from scoundrel to selfish. The only reason he takes Adeline with him is to save his own skin. For La Motte saving his own skin seems to be a driving force behind most of his actions, in the beginning and through some of the other chapters. Adeline may think he's her savior, but in the end he just wants to be his own personal savior. I was sure my impression would eventually change as the novel went on and he would have some moment of revelation and do something good for someone else, a common formula for this type of character, but I like the selfish La Motte. La Motte's selfishness is literally a driving force behind the plot. Without La Motte being selfish the La Mottes would still be in Paris and Adeline would be in who knows what situation and there would be no book. So, therefore I completely agree with Radcliffe's decisions for the character. Or, at least the decisions reflecting the first impression I got.

Deceiving Beauty

Going off of what we spoke about in class on monday, my group decided to view the story in the perspective of Adeline. We did not like the idea that she is a feeble and weak female lead character in the storyline. We though of her more as someone who is playing the innocent victim. When we are first introduced to her through La Motte, he raves of her sheer beauty. She is on the floor crying in the hands of the man who wants to get rid of her. Yet what if all of it was simply an act of her own doing to get what she has intended. I am not saying that she purposely wanted the man to drag her, but she may be playing along so she can leave the hellhole in which she is in. There is a section that states "there was a penetrating sweetness in her blue eyes, which indicated an intelligent and amicable mind." This helps back up the fact that she could be playing everyone in her game. She uses her beauty to somewhat seduce La Motte and befriends Madame La Motte in her gain. Whenever Madame La Motte questions her of her past and how she came to be of where they discovered her, Adeline tears up and states she cannot talk about it. It is only later that she reveals the truth but for awhile her character can seem deceiving and tricky. As fun as it may seem that Adeline is like this, it may be that she is simply as the story portrays her. I find Romance of the Forest to be a much more fascinating read, as I keep reading on I find it harder to stop. The story seemed odd at the beginning and the direction of where it was going but now it flows and brings curiosity. The gothic aspects come through in the description of the abbey and the fear the characters have of the forest and the dark inside. The noises and thoughts of the characters add to the imagery that helps set the tone for the gothic aspects.

The Love in the Woods

Gothic romance novels is not really my forte but I found The Romance in the Forest as well as The Castle of Otranto interesting and amusing. However, I found Walpole's novel to be quite bizarre. The Romance of the Forest moves along rather quickly. The heroine of the novel, who is a bold character nonetheless, is so "scared of her shadow." She nearly faints in e-v-e-r-y chapter. The hero, well... for a strong and brave soul, he cries a lot, especially when his father was upset, when he was about to be executed and when his beloved was imprisoned. Marquis, the bad guy, was a bad guy is the purest form; lustful would be a good way of describing his character. If I had read this novel before taking this class - when I had little to no knowledge of Gothic novels - I might have found it to be a tad sentimental. However, the novel is interesting as it is enjoyable.

Romance of the Forest

 I actually have been enjoying reading The Romance of the Forest. I was not too thrilled to begin with because for one I am not a fast reader (Dyslexia mixed with ADHD plus due date reading equals FOREVER), and two I was not sure if it would be another headache inducer like The Castle of Otranto was. I have been pleasantly surprised though. I find The Romance of the Forest a lot easier to understand and dissect; I like the pace of the novel too. Just goes to show what can happen when you jump into something with low expectations. I have to say though, I really did not like Adeline at first. She just seemed really weak, secretive, and fake. But once I got her know her better, and the story perspective started to change into what she saw/how she thought I felt differently. She seems to spark curiosity, and turned into someone that I find very interesting to read about. I noticed that a lot of the characters have that kind of change too; each starts to become more friendly and familiar with the reader as the book comes along, at least so far. I really like the style of writing too; I find that the words almost seem to flow into one another (Unlike The Castle of Otranto), which made it easier to read for me personally. I also really like the mix of Gothic and Romantic influence that is twisted together. It kind of adds to the flow and keeps the book moving. I am looking forward to what happens next in The Romance of the Forest.    

Taking a Stand.

In class on Monday, we were given the assignment to select a paragraph about LaMotte and Adeline and analyze why there was no dialog between them and then script our own dialog for them according to how our group thought they should speak in the situation -- I'm sure everyone remembers this. My group, however, chose not to participate in the second-half of the assignment, not because we were lazy or disinterested, but because we felt that writing dialog for the characters, particularly in the writing style of the novel, would not satisfy our earlier analysis of why there isn't dialog in the first place. We came up with this reason...

We didn't want to provide dialog because any time we tried to craft what we imagined the characters were saying, it came out impossibly cheesy and caused us to laugh and immediately take the characters and their situations less seriously. We judged the characters more harshly when there was speech because they were more ridiculous. They were frivolous; melodramatic, almost.  Adeline's plight became less sympathetic, suddenly she wasn't a weeping angel but an unnecessarily and annoyingly hysterical girl that no one really wanted to deal with. LaMotte's chivalry decayed into awkward reassurances and his voiced confusion made him seem clumsy and incapable or if he was too quick to help, his confidence was almost suspicious in intent. This frustrated us and turned a graceful scene into a mockery.

A Matter of Comfort

The character of Adeline in Romance of the Forest is one of the first to give a long winded speech about her past, but she starts off in the beginning of the novel giving sort of indifferent and "artless" answers to everyone's questions. She also tends to be quite dramatic with no background information as to why, constantly bursting into tears and falling prey to hysteria at the slightest intimidation. As we said in class, the first chunk of the text is mostly indirect dialogue with the narrator dictating what is happening at a pretty fast pace. Within the first ten pages or so, La Motte has already escaped his home to flee debtors, gone to a strange house and been captured and then been forced out with a young girl and told he would be killed if he decided to return within the hour. This leaves the reader in a sort of bewildered state in the sense that we know generally what the characters are doing and what it happening, but we have no insight into what they are thinking or how they interact with each other. So much is compacted into a short number of pages that the pace of the story seems to quicken. This is due to the lack of direct dialogue. As the story progresses, we see the characters, especially Adeline, opening up to each other and giving a history of how they came to be in their current predicament. I think this has to do with character development and how they must build a sense of trust among them before they interact verbally. This in turn makes the characters seem a little more real and relatable. They start to form disfunctional family of outcasts and once they have established bonds, they tend to speak more openly. I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure if any one of us were forced into this strange grouping scenario, we'd a ll be a little skeptical at first, too.